"You naughty, lazy thing!" said Mabel. "Now you've got to swim, sir, so you may as well do it. Here, let's poke him with this stick."
"I think there's something the matter with him," said Julia. "He looks kind of flabby and sick; don't you think he does?"
"Oh, yes! look at his eyes; they're growing all white," said Mamie.
"Take him out of the water," said Alice. "You, Mabel; he's yours."
But if the duckling were sick or ailing, Mabel had no desire to claim him. She was frightened now, and the words of the other children added to her alarm.
"What have you done to him, Mabel?" asked Julia.
"I didn't do any thing," she answered snappishly; "and you shan't say I did."
"Was he this way when you found him?" asked Alice, lifting the duck out of the water.
"I don't know," pouted Mabel. "No, he wasn't; 'cause he wiggled and squirmed so I could hardly hold him at first."